Best Training for iPad App Creation: Study What’s out There

Someone is in the kitchen with Martha, and it could be you

It is Friday in sunny Beirut, and my last day here before continuing on to even warmer Dubai.

I have received several emails from people who read yesterday’s blog (scroll down if you missed it) about the new Martha Stewart food magazine on the iPad, and, called attention to what some describe as “even better, and the most fun iPad app out there.“

It is the Martha Stewart Makes Cookies app, available not just for the iPad but the iPhone as well. I still have to download it, but based on the buzz it has from those who have tried it, I had to include it in today’s blog. Go here for more information: http://www.marthastewart.com/cookie-recipes-app

Whether you are interested in baking or not, if you are a working designer or editor, you need to see how the iPad is used to present information, not just news and features. These apps are the best existing textbooks, seminars and workshops that we have to study this new platform.

Hardly a day passes that someone will not write to me asking if I know of an organization that is offering Designing for the iPad workshops. I am sure that there are several of those going on, but I firmly believe that the best way to learn about what works and doesn’t in this new medium is by downloading apps, dissecting them, and studying what I think constitute the primary elements of an effective app:

1. Navigational tools, both for the overall app, and secondary navigation for internal movement within the app.2. Frames: how the app facilitates the access to various textures within the app, or interactivity between the user, the makers and others sharing the same experience.3. Look and Feel: how the app establishes its own identity while preserving the branding elements of the publication inspiring it and feeding it content.

I plan to discuss these three elements in more detail in the days ahead here in TheMarioBlog.